Simonson

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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Eric Simonson from Cho Oyu Base Camp with an update on the International Mountain Guides Autumn 1999 Cho Oyu Expedition. Based upon our satellite weather forecast that we received, which still indicated instability and a chance of snow up high, we've held our Sherpas back for another day and decided to wait just a little bit longer .

We had a great day, though, this last day, as we got the whole expedition working on a project here at Advanced Base Camp. We started in the morning collecting garbage around the camp and at lunch time had collected 28 rice bags of garbage, which is — each bag about 60 pounds — works out to about three-quarters of a ton of garbage, which was quite impressive from our standpoint. We ripped into a couple of old piles that had been burned and then rocked over and we tore them apart and shoveled out all the old debris and then made nice rock patio areas where there used to be garbage piles. The CTMA, that's the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association, is going to be sending some yaks to haul it all down. In fact, we talked to the liaison staff at Base Camp yesterday evening and told them that we needed at least 14 yaks to haul garbage down, they're going to send that up here in the next couple days.

So, we've been busy and improving our little bit of the world up here. And we're still waiting for a better forecast, but hopefully we'll be able to kick things off in the next day or two and launch our installation of Camp III and then subsequently our summit bid.

For the time being, though, that's the story from Advanced Base Camp. And we'll be talking to you. Thanks a lot, good-bye.

— Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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